


let's pretend (to be tonight)

by somethingiswrong



Series: your lips, my lips [2]
Category: RWBY
Genre: F/F, Hurt/Comfort, Mutual Pining, a lot of comfort bc man ruby needs it, and so does weiss, fluff if you squint enough, kind of a song fic, mentions of abuse, the bapies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-08
Updated: 2019-08-08
Packaged: 2020-07-28 14:49:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,404
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20065807
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/somethingiswrong/pseuds/somethingiswrong
Summary: “If …”She grasps at Weiss’ hand.“If this nightmare is real.”"Then I hope you are, too."--Ruby breaks down after failing to defend Weiss.Post V7. Whereas the one where Ruby challenges Jacques to a fight, and loses.





	let's pretend (to be tonight)

**Author's Note:**

> Loosely based on:
> 
> Magnetised(Acoustic Version) - Tom Odell
> 
> Love Love Love - Of Monsters and Men

The fight was exquisite. 

Exquisite in the way it feels like a trance. 

In the way that when Ruby is beaten down to her last, 

That she’s on her knees.

And it feels like she can’t breathe. 

Can’t see the way Weiss moves to her,

Rushing and panicking.

And for when she feels the soft crunching of the snow beneath her. 

Her body slumping and giving out. 

She looks up, and the sneer on Jacques’ face is imminent. 

Thump-thump.

Her heart is throbbing,

beating so fast. 

And the world is spinning around her. 

She can’t make out the details clearly. 

So,

For that last few seconds,

For when she hears that same ringing around her head.

And then the sound of something sudden.

Thump-thump. 

The sound of when Weiss starts to cry,

And that same disgusting sneer on her father’s face.

That the world goes dark. 

And the sound of Yang and Blake shouting from the distance seems so close. 

* * *

Weiss finds Ruby later.

Secluded and alone in the little corner of her room.

Her bed still cold. 

* * *

I guess that’s how people go on, without

knowing how. I am so ashamed

before my friends—to be known to be left

by the one who supposedly knew me best,

each hour is a room of shame, and I am

swimming, swimming, holding my head up

smiling, joking, ashamed, ashamed,

like being naked with the clothed, or being

a child, having to try to behave

while hating the terms of your life. In me now

  * Olds, Sharon. “Known To Be Left”. _Stag’s Leap_. 2012 

“Ruby.”

Weiss cups at her cheeks.

One thumb at her blackeye. 

Smooth.

Careful.

Tender. 

Though it still stings. 

Then.

Her lips start to move, voice rasps in her throat at the very end. 

“How are you feeling?”

She doesn’t answer immediately.

Instead, she leans into Weiss’ palm at one of her cheeks.

Caressing at her bruise.

And her breath shudders. 

So she reaches up.

Holds at that hand, and squeezes. 

And her breath is still shaking.

“I …”

Though that was all to it.

Ruby tries at her voice again.

It stays there.

Lingers.

Weiss watches for when Ruby finally shifts again. 

Her lips so close to touching Weiss’ hand. 

So she reaches down, thumb at the bloodied cut on Ruby’s lower lip. 

Weiss’ eyes scans at the way she stops shifting. 

Her other hand at her knee, rubbing it profusely. 

“I don’t know.”

Her voice shakes again. 

“I don’t know.”

Another repeat.

So repetitive.

So lost.

_ I don’t know. _

And she’s apologizing now.

“I’m sorry.”

Weiss looks at her.

Skims at the way Ruby’s lips flutter. 

The way she reaches up for the hand at her cheek. 

And clenches at it. 

Tight. 

And still, even though it feels like Weiss is her anchor,

She feels nervous. 

Still shaking.

Doubting.

“I’m sorry.”

“I could have done better.”

She feels like Weiss is sinking as well.

For when she doesn’t answer back.

“You’ve done your best.”

It feels even heavier with only the two of them in their room. 

Voices sounding outside the doorway. 

Weiss inspects at her face again. 

“You need to understand that you’ve done your best.”

She cups at Ruby’s face.

Takes in the way her lips move.

Words so ready to spill.

“I …”

Ruby looks so defeated. 

It sounds like she’s about to cry again. 

“I can’t.”

And then she grips at her skirt.

She doesn’t want to touch Weiss. 

She doesn’t want to feel the disappointment. 

Doesn’t want to see the frown on Weiss’ face. 

That certain tick that tells her that Weiss is annoyed. 

Just like the first day. 

She knows Weiss means well.

But she’s just,

so,

so,

scared.

Maybe that should be the end of it here.

Maybe she just needs to be alone.

Sort out her own thoughts. 

But she’s crying now. 

And Weiss can see that.

“I can’t.”

“I just can’t when there’s just so much to do out there.”

And she breaks. 

“It gets so hard.”

She looks up at Weiss now. 

“And you’re the only one there for me.”

She sniffles. 

“I can’t-”

It’s only when Weiss looks at her,

And the way her heart feels like it’s in her throat,

That she understands.

“I can’t keep doing this to you.”

And then she sniffles.

Tears wet at her cheeks and to her neck.

Her voice clogs.

“I understand that even though …”

She grabs at straws.

Something, 

something. 

Just something to hold onto.

She’s shaking.

“Even though it feels like there’s nothing left,”

“Even if there’s nothing more to it-”

Weiss thumbs at her tears.

Wiping it so carefully.

So soft.

So comforting.

“W-We have to keep trying.”

And everything is just pouring out. 

“We have to keep trying.”

Her heart feels like it’s in her throat now.

“We have to keep trying.” 

The line isn’t so clear to Weiss anymore, but she knows it by heart now.

She knows it by the way Ruby’s eyes look so red.

The red that haunts at her mind and tell her that she’s not good enough.

The red pooling out from between her wounds and it feels like it’s suffocating her.

Gently, like Weiss’ touch,

But it kills her so bad inside. 

“Because if we don’t--”

_ Then I don’t know. _

“Then what’s the point of all of this?”

It grows small. 

And smaller. 

And smaller. 

Till it’s all but silence. 

And nothing more but the chattering of the people from outside. 

She senses for when Weiss reaches up,

Grasping, 

Like she’s a little bit desperate. 

Tears wet at her sleeve,

And it’s tainting her outfit. 

And then a sniffle. 

Oh, 

Weiss is crying too.

And she’s speaking through her tears.

All choked up and it feels like both of them are suffocating. 

“Ruby.”

Worry spikes at her heart.

She doesn’t know how to react.

“Just shut up.”

Ruby shouldn’t be surprised. 

“Just shut up about all your stupid little things.”

Her heart feels like it’s in her throat.

And she wants to cry again. 

“Stop saying that it’s all your fault.”

Weiss strokes at her cheek again.

This time it feels so different. 

Blue eyes calculating at the way her lips move, 

The way her heart speeds up when Weiss’ thumb touches at her lower lip.

“Stop blaming yourself.”

Weiss holds at her hand. 

“Please.”

It sounds so sweet to her ears. 

“Please let me be there for you.”

“Let me take care of you.”

But sometimes it bites back at Ruby,

and she still feels that weight around her heart. 

“Weiss.”

They’re so close to each other. 

This sort of intimacy. 

“I’m rotten work.”

And Weiss sighs. 

She settles herself closer to Ruby. 

Back leaning against the cold wall, 

fingers tightly knitting to Ruby’s. 

“Not with me.”

Her thumb starts a little rhythm at Ruby’s hand.

Just to help calm down her heart. 

“Not when it’s you.”

Just to calm down something so close to a confession. 

* * *

Just little spots.

Little circles.

Around at her hand and down at the moving of her thumb.

Such nervous skin.

She wants to get some sense into this, grasping at Ruby’s hand again.

The jitters of her skin, the way she moves back.

It makes her want to forget.

So she looks to her side.

Here she is.

Beaten.

Tattered.

And Ruby breaks when she calls out for Weiss.

Shaking.

And so so nervous.

“Hey.”

And somehow she pictures for it to be Ruby crying again.

Slipping down walls.

So exhausted.

So tired.

The look on her face when there’s nothing left to it, no motivation to keep pushing for it.

Fighting for it.

Struggling for it.

But she replies, a breath away from just swallowing back.

Wanting to pretend she’s asleep.

Still scared.

And alone. 

“Mhm.”

Then grasping just a tad bit tighter at Ruby’s palm.

Imagining.

For when Ruby slips down at walls.

Trying so hard not to give up.

Wanting so hard to give in.

and,

sometimes Weiss wants to be convinced that Ruby is right.

That there’s nothing left to it.

No point for more.

But it doesn’t hurt if she carries this little hope inside her.

That it’s gonna get better, 

like Ruby tells her.

“If …”

She grasps at Weiss’ hand. 

“If this nightmare is real.”

The chattering outside has stopped.

It’s only the silence in the room, 

And them.

Sitting side by side. 

“Then I hope you are, too.”

**Author's Note:**

> I know that I'm wrong  
And now we're both sitting in silence  
But if it's alright  
I'll wrap myself around your cold shoulder  
• Ahay - Of Monsters and Men
> 
> \--
> 
> The last lines were based on a whiterose comic by 72902192 on Tumblr. (https://72902192.tumblr.com/post/185532854692)


End file.
